Posted: November 20, 2005 6:05 PM - 2264 Hits
Lombard Revival Rally 2005
Posted: November 20, 2005 6:05 PM
Nearly 140 entries, all built to the new 1400cc Formula
launched recently by the Motor Sports Association (the UK
governing body), underline the growing popularity for what
is the only totally fresh initiative in recent years for
Britain's rally scene.
A total of 38 crews are wearing distinctive red door
numbers as past competitors of the original Lombard
rallies. They include former winner Neil Wilson, driving
his own Ford Puma, who won in 1985 as co-driver alongside
Henri Toivonen; and Britain's oldest rally regular,
78-year-old Willy Cave. "You should never give up, and you
are never too old; one day I will win this event," says the
man who was in the Standard Pennant team with Paddy Hopkirk
when they finished third overall in 1954.
The youngest competitor is 14-year-old Robert Lloyd,
navigating his father in a Volvo which cost £300, probably
the cheapest rally car in the line-up.
They all face a gruelling 1,200 miles around the UK, with
12-hour days. "This could not be more different from the
World Championship rallies of today," says Neil Wilson. "We
do our own servicing, we have no advance practice, no
pacenotes, and we get 52 off-road venues, timed to the
second, including famous forests, country parks, hillclimbs,
circuits, every kind of surface, night after day, day after
night. . . The atmosphere is brilliant, just like the
Lombards of old."
Cars set out on the Abingdon Circuit prologue on Thursday
14 November; on Friday, they drive via Silverstone to
Nottingham, where at 16.30 - just as darkness falls -
drivers face an authentic re-enactment of the city-centre
Wollaton Park stage from the 1985 road-book, before ending
the night several hours later at Chester. Leg three leaves
Chester on Saturday and heads via Radnor Forest to end the
day in the Forest of Dean and Caerwent before the rest halt
at Newport. On Sunday, the final leg, there are no fewer
than 19 venues, including Esgair Dafyd, Eppynt and Sweet
Lamb, before finishing at the Great Orme in Llandudno.
Several manufacturers are supporting cars, this new
Endurance Rally formula being the only branch of the modern
British club scene to attract factory interest. Mercedes
are supporting an A-Class, one of the more unsual entrants,
with Vauxhall, Daihatsu and Suzuki also involved. Britain's
local motor clubs and nearly 1,000 marshals form the
backbone of the event organisation, which has been steered
by the Endurance Rally Association.
"We are delighted to be back," says Neil Edwards of Lombard,
"and every car is a clubman. The winning names go onto the
original trophies alongside Carlos Sainz from 1983; we are
just picking up where we left off in every respect, with a
concept that is bang up to date, with all cars
environmentally friendly and all cars we can identity with,
in showroom standard condition. It will be highly
competitive, with every car on the same Colway tyres, and
everyone on much the same horsepower. Something unique and
rather special in British rallying is now unfolding."
The Lombard Revival Rally is supported by Colway Motorsport
Tyres.